Things Have Changed
by karenwrites
Summary: With Voldemort on the rise, things at Hogwarts will change, as well as the people in it. Can 2 complete opposites find love in each other when the world around them is crumbling down? An original realistic, canon LJ story set in 1970's Britain. RR PLEASE!


**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own Harry Potter, it all belongs to J.K. Rowling. So don't sue :

**IMPORTANT A/N**: This is just a Preface to the story, there will be no conversations in this chapter so to speak because this is Preface is mainly a background check sort of thing on Lily and James. I want this story to be as realistic as possible by setting it in 1970's Britain, and portray the characters the way J.K. Rowling has described them in interviews, books, etc. Reviews are greatly appreciated! I had a little help from Wikipedia and Harry Potter Wiki, so thanks!

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**1. Preface**

Lily Evans has always been someone you could count on. She was very popular, but not in the way where she was mean and everyone feared her. In fact, she was the exact opposite. She was popular because she was just _so nice_. Everyone liked her because she was a kind, graceful, smart, proud, brave, and pretty Gryffindor. She always sought out the best in everyone, and put other people before herself. Of course, she had some flaws. She was a bit stubborn, and a bit of a teacher's pet but she didn't see that being a teacher's pet should have been a problem or a flaw. It was impossible to hate her, she was friends with almost everyone and the only reason why anyone would dislike her at all was because they were jealous of her, or of the attention she receives (and does not want) from most boys at Hogwarts. She did get verbally bullied for being a Muggleborn witch by some Slytherins, but she shrugs it off no matter how much the term "Mudblood"offended her. Then there were the Marauders. James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew.

Lily was neither friends nor enemies with them, preferably very distant acquaintances. The Marauders were the "class clowns" of the Hogwarts, and even as brilliant and kind as they might have seemed to everyone else, Lily did not really like them. She did not show her dislike as much, only when she needed to. It was a fact that James Potter, the "ring leader" of the Marauder's group was very taken with her. She refused politely the first few times he had asked her out because she just didn't hold affection for him in any way, his arrogance, and bad habits (like bullying and breaking the rules constantly) reminding her why she she had to say no, but it had gotten out of hand after a little while because he had asked so many times and would not listen to her when he said no, and she had figured out that he wouldn't stop asking her until she said "yes." And that was when her rather vicious temper rose.

After O.W.L.'s in Fifth Year, James Potter had publicly humiliated her by asking her out in front of everyone. That very same day, at that very same time, he had made her lose her best friend, Severus Snape. He had bullied him and arrogantly spoke to her as if it was something she would've found amusing. Wrong. He had crossed a line. So did Severus. Her own best friend, had called her the name that had offended her the most, and she ended her friendship with him. It hurt her very much to end it, because she had known him for a long time, before they even arrived to Hogwarts. She had to leave the scene before her tears became visible. She blamed James Potter for all of this. He had started this rift between them and he was the cause of the rift spreading and ending their relationship. This made Lily and Jame's "relationship" even worse. They _almost_ hated each other. Well, Lily did, but James was just as infatuated as before. Sixth Year was a bit more tolerable, because he had a about two girlfriends that year and one of them, named Caroline Dennings had been in a relationship with him for four months, an all time high for him. The fact that James still flirted with her, and any other swooning girl near him at the time he was dating Caroline disgusted her. This is one of the reasons why she had said no, because he was an insufferable pig with no morals.

Seventh Year at Hogwarts was going to start, and Lily Evans has been named the new Head Girl. Her parents, always proud of her accomplishments have treated her with a small used automobile that could get her around England when she needed to. It was 4,050.04 pounds (8,000 in US ) and was to be lent to Petunia while Lily was at Hogwarts. _Petunia_. Another touchy subject. Lily and Petunia, even though they are sisters, haven't reconciled since the day Lily got her letter from Hogwarts at age eleven. Her parents insisted that her sister was just jealous, but Lily began to realize that everything she was apart of, everything she did, and who she was would always see 'freakish' to Petunia. She had learned to live with the coldness she had received from her, but always wishes that it would go away and that they could become friendly sisters as the once were. Things were changing in her life. Not just her life at home, but at school too._ He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named_ as everyone had called him was rising to power. He recruited the wizards and witches that were really into the Dark Arts, and killed anyone just because he could. He was prejudiced against anyone who wasn't Pureblooded and targeted them to reduce the "filth" in the world. All Lily knew was that once she was done with school, she would want to fight. She would want to help the Wizarding world as well as the Muggle world as much as she could. And if she could manage to be alive by the end of all this, she would want to start a family with someone she loved. But that would have to wait. Now, as school is approaching, she knew that everything would change.

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James Potter was one of the most popular guys in school, along side his three best friend Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. They were known as the Marauders. Mischievous as they were, they were still kind at heart. Brave and good looking too. When James figured out that his best friend Remus Lupin was a werewolf, he did everything in his power to make him understand that he was not truly abnormal. So to prove that he was still a normal person, and not some dangerous animal that doesn't deserve to go to Hogwarts and learn to be a good wizard, he and his two other friends Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew decided to become illegal Animagi. It took three years to master it. But they did it. By Fifth Year, they managed to become Animagi. James became a stag thus earning his nickname "Prongs", Sirius became a dog earning the name "Padfoot, and Peter became a rat and was nicknamed "Wormtail." Every month at full moon, James and his friends would transform into their animals and help Remus by accompanying him.

Later in the year, James couldn't help but begin to fancy prefect Lily Evans. Everyone liked her. She was very pretty, and smart as he noticed that she would always raise her hand in Potions and Charms. The only problem was that she seemed to dislike him. A lot. He guessed that the reason was because he broke the rules a lot and she always did the opposite. But Remus, who was also a prefect said that Lily always thought that James was a bully, that had no concern toward anyone except for himself and his friends. He didn't just hear that from Remus though. When James got Lily mad, her temper would usually take over. She would scream at him saying things like, "You insufferable prick...", "...arrogant bullying toerag", "...Big headed...Stupid hair..." James never really remembered. He was too mesmerized by her face to notice or listen to anything she was saying or doing. He knew she would be a catch, and to get her to realize that he wasn't as bad as he seemed was going to be the most difficult part.

During Sixth Year, because of Lily's ignorance toward him he had decided to take the route where he would attempt to make her jealous. She did not react one bit. He had dated two girls that whole year, a major setback at the amount of girls he usually went out with, but it didn't matter to him. It didn't work out with the first girl he went out with in the beginning of the year so he broke up with her and got together with a nice and pretty Ravenclaw girl named Caroline Dennings. Though he did not intend on staying in a relationship with her for that long because he did not want Lily to feel that he no longer fancied her, he had continued to flirt with Lily and some other girls which only annoyed her even further. But because he knew that Lily would want him to be serious about a relationship if she should ever go out with him he had decided to take more seriousness into his relationship with Caroline. He would admit that he enjoyed it quite a lot. They connected at first but towards the end of the fourth month that they were a couple, things started to fall apart because he knew that even though he enjoyed Caroline being his girlfriend, it could only be temporary. He needed Lily too much, and even though that sounded desperate, he was willing to admit that he could possibly love her. And he was sure that he would too, if he ever got the chance to see her, for who she really was behind the prefect and popularity status. He also knew he had competition. He knew he wasn't the only male at school who hasn't noticed that she was beautiful, smart, and brave she was. In fact, she was quite the talk of the hour when it came to dances and events. Luckily, she has never really had the time for having a boyfriend so she kindly said 'no' to people who had asked her and explained why she couldn't in hopes to not crush their feelings. She really was a nice girl. Unluckily, those 'no's' weren't just for the other guys, they were meant for James too, and sometimes she would say it more harsher to him than to any other guy. And in the summer, Sirius had escaped his horrible family and came to the Potters where he was welcome with open arms and became an unofficial family member.

Seventh Year was approaching, and he had been selected to be Head Boy. At first, he couldn't believe it. It was Remus who was the prefect, not him. He spent too many times in detention than he did in class! He had broken too many rules that it was impossible for Dumbledore to not notice. He surely knew who would be selected Head Girl, and that thought alone scared him. Lily Evans and James Potter, Head Girl and Head Boy?? They were complete opposites, surely Dumbledore would have taken that to account? He had also been selected Captain for the Gryffindor Quidditch team; which only meant more responsibilities. Then, after he thought it through, he realized, maybe Dumbledore did look at all these things for he would not have taken this situation lightly. In fact, he remembered, toward the the end of Fifth Year two years ago, he had saved Snape's life. He remembered at that time, that when he was confronted by Dumbledore, that the situation that happened at the Whomping Willow on the night of a Full Moon would have made Dumbledore decide that James would be Head Boy in Seventh Year. He would not have made James a Prefect in Sixth Year because it was rare to strip a person from their title of being Prefect, and not to mention that it would devestate Remus. Being Pureblooded, his parents understood the responsibilities he would have to hold to, being Quidditch Captain and Head Boy. They had rewarded him with a new broom, another one to priceless collection of them. His family was very wealthy, coming from a long line of Purebloods. Even though he and his mother and father couldn't care less about who he had married, it still was a bit of a burden. Being the last Pureblood in the Potter family had to mean something. But he realized that he didn't care, _love_ was the only thing that mattered. He knew that whoever it was that he ended up with, the last thing he would take into account is her parentage. Times were changing, everyone was noticing. An evil dark wizard was slowly rising to power in attempt to rid the world of "filthy blood." He knew that this wizard did not stop for anyone, he would kill anyone that got in his way. James knew that a war was going to start, it was obvious. He knew that he would do whatever it took to help, he wanted to help. Sure, his parents would want to stop him, they would want him to settle down first, but he thought otherwise. He couldn't imagine putting the one he loved into danger. He knew that things were going to change.

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**A/N:** So do you love it? Hate it? PLEASE REVIEW!! More than 5 reviews would really get me even more motivated to write this story! I'll try to post a new chapter as soon as a I can. I promise you, that this is the only chapter that will not have any dialogue in it because it was a background sort of thing. This story will mainly be in Lily's POV unless I decide that I want something to be in James's POV for some reason. Also, if someone would volunteer to beta my story for me, that would be really really great!! THANK YOU!!

-karenwrites


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